


The World Was Just A Subway Map

by nosecoffee



Series: Thanks For the Welcome Wagon [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda, In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: A low-key In The Heights AU, Multi, Part one of three, based on In The Heights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-17 23:10:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7289812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosecoffee/pseuds/nosecoffee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They'd known each other as children. They'd played together, and grown up together, and they were so different from each other. Hercules stayed home and got a job and Eliza went to college.</p><p>A low-key In the Heights AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	The World Was Just A Subway Map

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry about this. It just happened.

He hadn't seen her for two years.

He wasn't expecting to see her there, and that was strange, because where else would she be?

If anything, he didn't belong here, and yet this felt more his home than hers.

The question still remained; what the hell was she doing here?

-

Age Seven (2002)

Hercules had opened the fire hydrant again. It took a lot of effort, but it was open and spilling into the street and he whooped in victory, throwing the wrench to the side and seeing already his friends emerging from wherever they were playing to play in the water.

The asphalt had burned his bare feet, but the water that pooled around them now cooled them. He could see Laurens and Lafayette rushing across the street to join in and Peggy jumped off the sidewalk and splashed all of them, giggling wildly.

Hercules saw Eliza and Angelica on the front step of their building, watching them all. He watched Angelica nudge Eliza in the ribs and giggle as Eliza got up with a huff.

Lafayette had picked up Peggy and put her on his shoulders and Laurens was calling Eliza over, saying they were gonna play chicken. She was standing in the sidewalk, watching the rush of water, cautiously, like her blue tule skirt would be wrecked if she played.

Hercules heard a laugh from the street and saw Mr Washington watching them with a wide smile.

He knew Washington wouldn't rat him out.

Eliza bit her lip and stepped lightly into the water with one foot. The other kids cheered and she smiled, moving to step in completely.

That was the point when Hercules heard the siren.

"Run!" He yelled and the children fled.

Eliza and Peggy ran to their building with Angelica ushering them inside, a wink sent his way.

Laurens and Lafayette took shelter with the Washington's, and Hercules ran for the bodega.

He giggled as the fire truck passed.

He'd just do it again the next week.

-

Age Ten (2005)

He knocked on the window and watched Angelica look up from her book. She raised an eyebrow.

Please let me in, he mouthed and she rolled her eyes, getting up from the table and sliding the window up.

Hercules climbed in off the fire escape. "Thanks, Angie."

"What did you do this time?" Angelica cut straight to the chase, closing the window behind him. "Daddy's getting coffee so you've got five minutes to revise your story before he gets here."

She folded her arms over her chest.

"Took another Twix. I think Mrs Ross is gonna beat me away with a broom stick next time I walk in. Or try to hire me," He added after a thoughtful second. "I don't speak Spanish real well so I can ever tell if she's being playful or threatening to call the cops on me."

Angelica tutted in disgust. "Criminal."

Hercules snorted. "There's a difference between criminal intent and hunger, Angie."

She shrugged and walked back over to the table. "Only when you don't actually take anything. You did. That's theft. That's illegal. Ergo, you're a criminal."

Hercules pointed at her, taking the last bite of his (stolen) Twix. "I'll admit, that's not flawed logic, but I refute it nonetheless."

The door behind him opened, the front door, and Hercules jumped, expecting Angelica's father.

"Gelica, have you seen my copy of The Faraway Tree-" Eliza stopped dead in the doorway.

Hercules waved, crinkling the Twix wrapper in his fist. He watched her face flush red beneath her pale freckles.

"What did he do this time?" She asked Angie.

"Took a Twix." Angelica sounded bored. "And no I haven't, have you asked Laurens? He looked like he wanted to make an honest woman of that book last time he saw you reading it."

"I haven't. Thanks, Gelica." She snapped the door closed behind her.

He sighed, stuffing the wrapper in his shorts pocket.

"Boy, you got it bad." Angelica drawled from the dining table.

Hercules felt the urge to flip her the bird but then the front door opened again and this time it was her father and he looked at Hercules with a raised eyebrow and a fond expression.

"What'd he do this time?"

-

Age Thirteen (2008)

Hercules spat tanbark out of his mouth. Laurens and Lafayette were laughing from the top of the slide.

He hadn't meant to fall down it, and he certainly hadn't meant to get a mouthful of tanbark after face planting off the end of the slide, but comedy was tragedy plus time, right?

Hercules laughed and sat up.

Laurens whooped.

"Herc, you got a split lip! Ten points to Hufflepuff!"

Lafayette laughed. "Oui, mom ami!" He shouted down. "It is, how you say, impressive!"

"Don't you 'how you say' me, you French bastard, you can speak perfect English!" Hercules shouted back with a snort.

Lafayette put a hand over his heart with a mock-wounded expression. "You insult me, connard!"

"It doesn't matter if you insult me in French, Laf, there are still children at this park!" Laurens cackled at Hercules' comment.

Angelica, who was pushing Peggy on the swings, looked over at them as Hercules climbed up the ladder to the shelter above the slide. Eliza was sitting on the other swing, reading what looked to be a maths textbook.

"Did you guys hear that Mrs Ross hired a real nice French lady to help out at the bodega?" Laurens asked them, throwing Hercules a packet of Tiny Teddies.

"No. What's her name?" Hercules responded.

"Rachel something. She has a son our age, I think. His name's Alex, or Rachel called him that when I was in there getting lollipops."

Lafayette smiled.

-

Age Sixteen (2011)

Alex had brought his radio. It was playing some Kanye West and Laurens and Lafayette were making out against the wall. Alex and Hercules were rapping along, and waving to the occasional passerby, but there weren't that many, as it was almost eight pm and everyone was hurrying home for dinner.

Lafayette made some noise at the back of his throat and Hercules swatted his ass with a rolled up Aldi's magazine. "Get a room," he snorted.

Alex laughed, shaking his head, hair whipping around his face.

Hercules hadn't seen Alex this happy since the funeral. Mrs Ross had hired him part-time at the bodega and offered to check up on him every other day.

Of course, Eliza could be one of the reasons he was this happy. They were practically attached at the hip if Eliza wasn't at tutoring and Alex wasn't at work.

He didn't think he'd seen anyone so in love.

Apart from Laurens and Lafayette, of course, but that was a given.

The song ended and some old song - Careless Whisper if Hercules remembered correctly - came on. Laurens moaned and Hercules hit him in the shoulder with the magazine.

"Jesus Christ, save it for after, guys. You'll get arrested for public indecency if you go any further." Alex laughed, leaning against the wall beside the couple - "Only if they catch us," Laurens said - and taking a swig of Coke.

And after he swallowed the mouthful, whistled loudly.

Hercules looked over in the direction Alex was looking and saw Eliza walking down the street, hugging a bunch of science textbooks to her chest. She looked up at them and rolled her eyes fondly, looking both ways before crossing the road.

"Hey Betsey." Alex greeted her, giving her a kiss on the cheek, and offering her his Coke can. She shook her head and smiled at him.

"Hey babe. I'm just heading home from tutoring; you wanna come up? Peggy's making enchiladas."

"I would, but I'm going to Laurens' tonight." She smirked and looked over his shoulder at the still interlocked couple.

"He looks a little preoccupied right now." Eliza commented. Alex shrugged, finishing off his can.

"Plenty preoccupied," Laurens commented, though it was muffled. Lafayette didn't say a word.

"Look, I'll see you tomorrow before school, okay?" She shook her head, smiling and kissed him on the cheek.

"Herc? You game?" Eliza asked.

"I'm always game for Peggy's cooking." She laughed and he waved at his friends.

They set off down the road together.

"That's no offence to your cooking, Liza, it's just that she has-"

"A gift." Eliza cut him off and snorted after her comment. He laughed.

"Sure, you could call it that." She led him up the stairs to her building and pushed open the door.

"I'm not that bad, am I?" Hercules made a face as they climbed the stairs.

"You tried to make spaghetti bolognese and almost burnt the apartment building down." They reached her floor and she took out the keys, shooting him a mock-glare.

"You're exaggerating."

"I'm not."

The apartment smelled like smoke, and that would probably be because Angelica was smoking on the fire escape.

Eliza rolled her eyes and put her stuff down in the front hall.

"Angie, you're gonna ruin your lungs." She said, walking into the dining room.

Angelica let her breath out, smoke billowing from her mouth as she stuck her tongue out and lifted the cigarette to her lips again.

"I do what I like," she responded.  
Eliza tutted in disgust - "You're killing yourself!" - and Hercules followed her into the kitchen.

Peggy was leaning over a cutting board, chopping capsicums.

"Hey, Pegster!" He called and she turned, grinning at him.

"Well if it isn't the guy who puts the 'glad' in 'gladiator'!" She called back. He punched her in the arm and she giggled, going back to chopping.

"Is daddy home yet?" Eliza asked. Peggy shook her head, a stray curl escaping from her immaculate bun.

"D'you think Gelica would be smoking if he was? You know he'd flay her alive if he knew."

"God knows how he doesn't already," Hercules commented.  
Peggy hummed in agreement.

"How's Eliza?" She asked after a moment. Hercules raised an eyebrow and leaned against the counter beside her.

"Well for one, she's standing in the kitchen with you." Peggy snorted.

"I meant your Eliza, dumbass."

He flushed. "Oh, you mean Lizzie."  
Because he had an Eliza of his own, Elizabeth Sanders. She was short and sweet and worked part time at the salon. They'd been dating for three months.

"Yeah, how's Lizzie?"

"Good, I think." Peggy cocked a hip out as she scraped the capsicum into a bowl and turned around, turning the knife over in her hand.

"You think?" She questioned, quirking an eyebrow.

"She's good," Hercules confirmed.

Angelica butted her cigarette on the fire escape and poked her head in. "Stop being a pest, Pegs." She called.

Peggy stuck her tongue out at her and went back to her enchiladas.

-

Age Nineteen (2014)

Hercules knocked on the window, wondering if anyone was home.

If not, he was content to sit on the fire escape for the rest of the day.

He narrowly avoided knocking Angelica's ashtray off the edge of the fire escape when the window slid open. It was Eliza.

Except, she didn't look normal. She looked wrecked.

Her nose was red and her eyes were puffy and her hair was up in the messy bun that she used strictly for studying.

"Liza?" She stared at him for along time, and then moved away from the window to let him in.

Hercules followed her inside and closed the window behind him.

"Liza what happened?"

She turned to look at him, brown eyes blazing.

"Alex said he didn't want to go long distance, so I ended it."

Yes, he'd heard about the break up. Alex was being all moody behind the counter at the bodega. Just one thing didn't make sense-

"What do you mean 'long-distance'?"

Eliza picked up a ripped envelope and pulled a letter out of it, handing it to him. "I got accepted into Stanford. I'm going to California at the end of the summer."

Hercules stared at the letter.

"Hercules?" Eliza looked at him cautiously, and if he looked hard enough, he could see a trickle of fear in her eyes.

"That's great!" He picked her up and hugged her tightly. "I'm so proud of you; this is huge!"

"You're not mad?" Eliza asked when he released her.

"Why the hell would I be mad? You're succeeding, and it's awesome. If I'm mad at anyone, I'm mad at Alex, cause he's being a dick."

Eliza smiled. "Thanks Herc."

"Heck, I almost did the same thing. Almost applied to a college back in Ireland-"

"'Back'?" Eliza asked, a teasing tone in her voice.

"Yeah, didn't you know? I'm Irish."

She laughed, "Actually, I didn't."

"Man, I should make you potatoes sometime." Eliza laughed again. "No, seriously, I've been told that my kipfler potatoes are to die for. Do you have any potatoes?"

Eliza nodded and they headed into the kitchen.

-

Age Twenty One (2016)

He honestly didn't know why he was shocked. It's not like this wasn't her home before it was his.

Angelica moved out after Eliza left for Stanford and Hercules moved in to share the rent with Peggy. Their dad had a nice place across the GWB and sent Peggy monthly deposits for the college fund she was making.

Hercules didn't know why he was shocked to see Eliza standing in his living room with a toothbrush in her mouth, wrapped only in a towel and talking to Peggy. But he was.

And the moment she saw him, there was only one thing he could say to her.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

**Author's Note:**

> As always, kudos and comments are the best, and my Tumblr is @nose-coffee. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Next part will be up soon.


End file.
